Miley Cyrus vs. Sinead O'Connor: An Open Letter to All the People Talking About the Open Letter

Written by Lisa Kelsey

Miley Cyrus

To those who say, “Ahh, Sinead, blaming men for exploiting Miley; Miley chooses to exploit Miley”: Miley Cyrus grew up in a cocoon of child stardom engineered for her by a bunch of adults. Now she is TWENTY, and all of a sudden you think she’s calling all the shots and this is the Real Miley? She’s not even old enough to drink a beer! You think she’s in charge and has a well thought-out plan for her career? Please. This is the reason I feel sorry for her—she is still a dumb kid and, yes, she is still being exploited. Look at her response to Sinead’s letter and see how mature and well thought-out that is.

Some feminists are holding her up as an example of a “woman” taking charge of her sexuality. Due to her former career, Miley has an enormous audience of very young girls who are now being told that hopping around in plastic underwear with your tongue hanging out and simulating sex with a man old enough to be your father in front of millions of people is...feminist. What? And someone please explain “slut-shaming” to me. If it is about blaming a rape victim for getting attacked because of what she was wearing, that’s one thing; it’s obviously wrong to do that. Or does it mean I have to approve of someone getting naked to sell records (or whatever it is that makes money for pop stars these days)? If so, then why aren’t these feminists defending women posing for Penthouse? Aren’t they “taking charge of their sexuality”?

To those who think “it’s her business what she does” and it’s unfair to “bash” her: Sorry, but you can’t have it both ways. She can’t complain about all the attention she’s getting (and has plainly begged for) and be left alone to do her “art.” If she didn’t want all this public scrutiny, she should have been a free-jazz musician. But once again, she is being poorly advised and she is reacting as the child that she is.

To those who think we shouldn’t be talking about her at all and we should be talking about Syria instead: I happen to be raising a daughter who grew up watching Hannah Montana, and what Miley does is (unfortunately) part of our very pervasive pop culture. Some of you raise your kids with no TV and no Internet, etc., to keep their precious minds clean, and that’s fine, but that’s not the way I parent. I want my kids to go out into the world with finely tuned BS detectors. And they’re not going to get that if I don’t let them see what’s out there and talk to them about it now. It is as valid to talk about how girls and women are perceived in our culture as it is to talk about “more important” matters.

That is all. Now you can go back to talking about more serious issues.